Traditional decor in Floral Park

Imagine you lived somewhere far away. Let's say the English countryside in a quaint brick cottage to the rear of a wide green lawn.

Of course, there is a historic-sized oak out front casting dappled shade along the walk and plenty of wrens flittering between the boxwoods.

Far away is not a far stretch when you live along one of the wide streets in Floral Park in Santa Ana. For interior designer Cynthia Dalton Wilsie, creating a home here isn't about buying anything new – including her 1926-era home.

Creating interiors wasn't a sudden impulse either.

"Back in the 1940s and '50s, my grandfather was an executive at Ford Motor Co. My grandmother had a knack for creating a showcase home. They entertained frequently. She had a fork for everything," Wilsie said.

Wilsie started out studying fashion merchandising. Her roommate in college studied interior design.

"I realized when we both graduated that I made a mistake," she said. "Interiors were way more interesting to me."

Wilsie married, moved to California and continued her studies at the Design Institute in Newport Beach. They've lived in their cottage home for 27 years.

"Lots of my furniture pieces were my grandmother's. She traveled extensively and got many of her pieces in England," Wilsie said.

The twin beds in the guest room were bought from Edsel Ford.

But even with British touches throughout the home, Wilsie doesn't describe her look as English.

"I'd call it traditional," she said.

The living room is more formal than the rest of the house, with moldings, gold accents and chinoiserie touches.

The inspiration for the guest room was a well-traveled leather suitcase passed down from her grandfather.

Mixing leopard prints with blue ceramics in the dining room requires a skill that few designers possess.

"A lot of the layering we did was to disguise the old imperfect walls of the house," Wilsie said.

The house wasn't exactly a wreck when the Wilsies moved in. But it was dated with a 1980s Waverly-inspired matchy-matchy look.

"It wasn't my taste," Wilsie said.

They loved some of the details such as the paneled walls and wood floors. But moldings and wall coverings needed updating.

"We whittled away at it over time," Wilsie said.

The kitchen is a departure from the warm colors of the rest of the home. With apple-green walls and white cupboards, Wilsie wanted her small galley kitchen to look larger than it is.

"My grandmother was my true teacher," Wilsie said. "She was old-school and taught me so much. How to go to museums, which fork to use, how to eat out in restaurants."

When her grandfather retired from Ford, he bought a flower shop – explaining Wilsie's desire for fresh flowers around her home.